So last night murnie had our first in-a-proper-rehearsal-room band rehearsal for a while. I say a while, we worked out that the last time was just before Simon’s eldest kid–who just turned five–was born. We’ve not been entirely idle in that time of course: there’s been recordings and the occasional songwriting session, but getting all three of us together to play at volume? Yup, five years. Sheesh.
And I’ll tell you something: it was a rare treat. Not only for the boys’ sense of humour and musical ability, both of which are legendary, but especially for the thrill of seeing song ideas–which not long ago were just lyrics, melodies and piano lines and more recently expanded to include guitar and extra vocals and get a shake up in arrangement terms–suddenly come alive with the addition of drums. And what drums! Our fella, Norman, is ace at looking beyond the obvious and bringing in rhythms that sometimes nail the essence of the song you had in your head all along, and other times bring out something entirely new and that confounds you to begin with because you never even suspected it was there. We had a few of both types last night and they’ll all be interesting to continue to work into shape. Biggest surprise of the night was a bitter-comic tune that I wrote about the mystifying number of people that still buy Command comic every week. Suddenly it’s turned into a groove-monster. Who knew? But I love it.
So, yeah, that 3D effect: drums, drums, drums.
ayeahmur 